secure a longer extension of the debt ceiling. that extra time will give us a chance to break the democrats' other bad habit of leaving everything, literally everything until the last minute. but we can only do it if we get to work now and return to what we call around here the regular order. remember, regular order is how the senate is supposed to function. committees are supposed to be allowed to evaluate legislation. amendments are supposed to be considered, and the public is supposed to have a chance to scrutinize the proposals that are actually before us. look, i know that solving the debt challenge is not going to be easy. putting our country on a sustainable fiscal and economic path is going to require both parties committing to serious spending reforms. but this is a challenge we must overcome. by doing the hard work today, we can avoid a european-style catastrophe tomorrow. by reforming the functions of government that no longer make sense in 2013, we can do more than just control spending. we can encourage private sector